Results tagged “chadpennington”

The only issue that feels more drawn out than the Senate replacement around the Big Apple these days is who will succeed Eric Mangini as the next coach of the Jets. The latest contender is Rex Ryan, current defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens, fresh off the team's Divisional Playoff victory yesterday in Tennessee. Jets owner Woody Johnson and GM Mike Tannenbaum are heading to Baltimore to interview him. Ryan is the son of former head coach Buddy Ryan, mastermind of the legendary Eagles defenses in the early '90s. One fan of his is the quarterback Ryan's defense picked apart last weekend, former Jet Chad Pennington. He told the Star-Ledger, "Rex has a unique scheme and Baltimore has very unique players...He maximizes their talent." One of those unique players, Ray Lewis, recently told the press, "Coaching-wise, Rex is one thing, but as a man, when you try to talk to him, he's just like a father."

Now that Brett Favre is coming to East Rutherford, questions are swirling around the fate of Jets longtime, many-times injured quarterback Chad Pennington. The Post reports that Pennington is "expected to be released by the Jets this afternoon," and that the Dolphins have already put a call into Pennington's agent--plus the Vikings and Chiefs may be interested. Kansas City might be a welcome place for Chad, since former Jets coach Herm Edwards is there. One very far-fetched idea: A Boston Globe blog suggests that Pennington would be a good backup for Tom Brady.

Eight of the Jets' 12 losses have come by seven points or fewer. Too many of them have followed the script of Sunday's 10-6 defeat at the hands of the Tennessee Titans in Nashville. Jets fans have to be sick of a banged-up team not expressing confidence in its quarterback -- Chad Pennington wasn't named the starter but played over Kellen Clemens and his sore ribs -- and then going out there and laying an offensive egg. Without his most dynamic playmaker (Laveranues Coles is on injured reserve), Pennington still found a way to complete 81 percent of his passes and throw for 264 yards.

As admirable as the Jets' effort has been during the second half of their lousy season, don't count on it staying there the final two weeks. Sunday's game against the Titans will mean nothing to them -- though Tennessee needs to win it to have any shot at the playoffs -- and who knows if the Jets will be motivated after their grudge match with the Patriots last week. Their season right now is about watching young players like Darrelle Revis.

The Patriots and Jets didn't have the worst weather in the league Sunday, but they still had plenty to complain about. Rain and wind didn't stay the Patriots from improving to 14-0 with a 20-10 win over the Jets in Foxborough, Mass.. It did help the Jets keep the game close and easily cover the record 27-point spread, for those who care about those things.

When the NFL scheduled the Jets to play the Cowboys on Thanksgiving back in the spring, it had to think it was going to get a good game between two 2006 playoff teams. Unfortunately for the league, only the Cowboys have lived up to expectations this season. Still, the game is better than some of the duds of recent years. The Cowboys look like the best team in the NFC -- which could make them...

Remember how excited some people got when Roger Clemens announced he was coming back to the Yankees? New Jets starting quarterback Kellen Clemens -- no relation, but like Roger's kids, his name does start with "K" -- won't get as much attention, but he still has quite a following. Weeks of calls for Chad Pennington to sit in favor of Clemens didn't persuade Coach Eric Mangini, but a 1-7 start has been enough for him...

What better symbol for the Jets' season than cornerback's Darrelle Revis' collision with safety Abram Elam? Revis, going for an interception against Buffalo's Lee Evans, instead got a mouthful of his teammate and a great view at the Bills receiver's march to the end zone. That score clinched Buffalo's 13-3 win in the Meadowlands on Sunday. The Jets have now lost twice to the Bills and have fallen to 1-7. Their only win came against the Dolphins, but the NFL will still insist that it counts.

If they want to, the Jets can trace the morphing of their season from disappointing to disastrous from their Week 4 loss in Buffalo on Sept. 30. Before that, their only defeats came against the Patriots and the Ravens. Those are nothing to be ashamed of. But now the team hasn't won since a Week 3 squeaker against the Dolphins, and, let's face it, everybody's beating Miami these days. The Jets will try it all over again at home this Sunday, but the change everyone wanted made hasn't happened. Chad Pennington is still the quarterback.

Chad Pennington gets all the attention, but the Jets' problems run deeper than the quarterback position. Eric Mangini said as much during an unusually open news conference following the latest Jets debacle, a 38-31 loss at Cincinnati on Sunday. Pennington looked fine in the first half, throwing two touchdowns to Lavaranues Coles. In the second half, the rest of the team's wheels fell off at once. Kenny Watson tore up the Jets' rush defense. When the Bengals did go to the air, Darrelle Revis, the rookie cornerback and a No. 1 draft pick, got called for two pass interference penalties. Nick Manigold, the center, botched a snap. On the last meaningful series, Pennington had an interception returned for a touchdown.

Chad Pennington couldn't pick a better game to save his starting job. Some have said this could be the quarterback's last chance to make an impression. Given Coach Eric Mangini's loyalty, that may not be the case, but even the Jets offense should find openings against a suspect Bengals defense. Cincinnati has been beset by injuries to its linebacking corps and on offense. Carson Palmer and his wide-receiving duo of Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh don't work as well when Rudi Johnson has a hamstring injury and right tackle Willie Anderson misses time.

If a change in clothes doesn't help the Jets, what will? Despite looking snazzy in their New York Titans throwbacks, the Jets looked anything but sharp on the field in a 16-9 loss to the Eagles on Sunday. Some creative playcalling, including a reverse, got the Jets deep inside Eagles territory as the fourth quarter wound down, but Chad Pennington couldn't get the ball to Laveranues Coles on fourth-and-one fade.

The Jets and the Eagles have plenty in common. They both made the playoffs last year and had expectations of returning. Slow starts have made those aspirations appear less likely. The Jets' season, without a bye to arrest its fall, has taken the sharper downward turn. They're 1-4 and have not looked good the past two weeks in losses at Buffalo and "at" the Giants.

It was a tale of two halves at the Meadowlands on Sunday. In the first half, the Giants did everything they could to hand a game to the Jets, in the second half, they woke up and took control of the game.

So much for taking advantage of an easy schedule. The Jets were handed a rookie quarterback, a banged up defense and an 0-3 opponent. They took one look at the pile under the Christmas tree, rewrapped the presents and gave them right back. But not before adding a bow to each of them. They now sit at 1-3 instead of 2-2. The season lost a lot of promise Sunday.

After not smiling on the Jets for the first two weeks of the season, the schedule gods dealt an easier hand for Weeks 3 and 4. First came the Dolphins at home, and the Jets cashed in for their first win of the season. Next is a game at Buffalo against the 0-3 Bills. If there is an adjective to describe this game stronger than "winnable" in NFL jargon, it should be applied. "Gimme" works.

Welcome back, Chad! All those fans who cheered Chad Pennington's departure had nothing to complain about Sunday during the Jets' 31-28 win over Miami. All it takes is a suspect defense for a struggling unit to turn itself around. Pennington threw for two touchdowns and ran for another. Hand out the gold stars to Thomas Jones (110 yards rushing), Jerricho Cotchery (54 yards receiving) and Laveranues Coles (30 yards and a touchdown). For a team that hadn't even held a lead over the first two games, the Jets looked plenty impressive on offense in Week 3.

The list of 0-2 teams to win the Super Bowl is a short one, though it does include the 2001 Patriots. No team has won it after losing its first three games. Like it or not, the Jets find themselves on the first list and will try desperately to avoid being placed on the second one when they host Miami this week. Despite reports of limited action in practice this week, Chad Pennington seems guaranteed to start at quarterback, much to Jets fans' chagrin. They're the ones who cheered Pennington's departure -- or backup Kellen Clemens' arrival -- when the veteran left with an ankle injury two weeks ago against the Patriots. Even with Clemens' strong fourth-quarter performance last week, apologist Coach Eric Mangini remains eager to get Pennington in there. No matter how indifferent fans feel toward Pennington, Mangini continues to provide plenty of slack on the leash. Pennington doesn't cost a team too many games, but how many he wins for them remains the subject of many a debate.

Ready for a quarterback controversy? Kellen Clemens took a while to get his feet under him, but he almost led the Jets back in their 20-13 loss in Baltimore. A drop and a poor throw of his own cost Clemens down the stretch, and the Jets are 0-2. At least they didn't go weakly into the Baltimore night. If not for Justin McCareins' buttery fingers, this game would have gone to overtime. This performance won't make it any easier for Coach Eric Mangini to stand by Chad Pennington as his starting quarterback when the Week 1 starter recovers from an ankle injury.

For much of the first half, things didn't look so bad. The Jets contained the Patriots offense, had scored a touchdown of their own and looked like they would be in position to scare and maybe upset New England. But seconds into the second half, the team trailed by two touchdowns en route to a 38-14 loss at home. Adding injury to insult, the Jets lost Chad Pennington to an ankle injury. He returned but then yielded to Kellen Clemens during garbage time. The injury was especially ugly. Not only did Pennington have to endure landing awkwardly on his own foot, but he had to hear -- as he hustled hobbled off the field to save a time out -- fans cheer Clemens' entrance into the game. Not the classiest move by Jets fans.

• Yankees 6 Royals 3: At this point, the YES Network should just play a “ch-ching” sound everytime A-Rod steps up to the plate. After hitting a home run for the 5th-consecutive game on Sunday, A-Rod has 52 for the season, the most for a Yankee since Mantle and Maris hit 54 and 61 in 1961. He also has 138 RBI’s with 19 games left, which puts him in line to have the most RBI’s as a Yankee since Joe DiMaggio had 155 in 1948.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: The Royals Are Flushed"

Life's easier the lower you keep everyone's expectations. Bill Waterson once had Calvin impart that wisdom in the comic strip, and the Jets are about to find that out as well. Last year, Coach Eric Mangini worked wonders to get the team into the playoffs and created a situation where media and fans will be looking for more. Don't be surprised if the team doesn't improve upon last year's results.

• Yankees 6, Indians 1: The Yankees played well against the soft part of their schedule and last night, against an actual playoff contender, they continued their recent winning ways (they've won 20 of the last 27 games). In his second start since returning from a May leg injury, Hughes, a key player in the future of the Yankees rotation, pitched brilliantly. He allowed only one run over 6 innings to the AL Central-leading Indians. Equally as impressive as Hughes, if not more so, was Joba Chamberlain who pitched perfect 7th and 8th innings. Chamberlain picked up one strikeout in the 7th before striking out the side in the 8th. The win put the Yankees in a tie for first-place in the Wild Card standings and gave them the same record as the Mets (not that it matters).
• Marlins 4, Mets 3: Perhaps it was the cold weather that pushed Billy Wagner into the blown save territory last night. Wagner, who hasn't exactly inspired confidence recently, blew only his 2nd save of the season. Wagner allowed a two-run double by Hanley Ramirez in the 9th to spoil the return of Carlos Beltran from an oblique strain. Beltran had the go-ahead, three-run homer in the 5th inning, but the Mets were unable to capitalize on a night that the Braves loss.
• Cyclones 4, Doubledays 3: Brooklyn won its third straight game last night by defeating the Doubledays. The Cyclones took the lead in the 7th with a two runs in the inning. Doubledays starter Marc Rzepczynski had a career high 10 strike outs in six innings of work.

Hopefully Monday's season opener of Sesame Street will help in sweepin' these clouds away! The new season will begin how it always does, by determining the educational needs of their tv-watching tot demographic.

Few teams can shrug off a playoff loss to a bitter rival and immediately accept their season as a success. The Jets may not be able to do that in the wake of their 37-16 loss to the Patriots in an AFC wild-card playoff Sunday, but they have no reason to hang their heads. New York entered this game knowing as an overmatched squad, but it still made New England sweat before being buried in the fourth quarter.

Beneath the tired storyline of the alleged feud between coaches Eric Mangini and Bill Belichick will be a strategic matchup that will decide the Patriots-Jets wild-card playoff on Sunday. The media cannot get enough of the abbreviated handshake -- some would call it a blow by -- shared by the two men when the Jets downed the Patriots, 17-14, on Nov. 12. The Patriots won the season's first meeting when they held off the Jets in a 24-17 win at the Meadowlands on Sept. 17.

With their 23-3 win over Oakland, the Jets capped their unpredictable run to the playoffs in a predictable way. Few people expected the Jets to finish at .500 this season, but by the time the Jets beat Miami last week, most had them taking down the Raiders in the season-finale. But give the Jets credit for taking advantage of the win-and-you're-in situation, even if it came against a team that last won on Oct. 29.

Mike Nugent's field goal with 10 seconds remaining helped the Jets squeak by Miami, 13-10, during a rainy Christmas night in South Florida. The messy game looked like many others this season; it was defensive and sluggish. Who cares about style? With a win against Oakland on Sunday, the Jets will make the playoffs. Not too shabby for a team most thought would be dreadful.

Last week, the Jets warmed up for their road game against the Vikings by showing up on Sesame Street. Head Coach Eric Mangini has a son who loves the show. Chad Pennington, Laveranues Coles and, most interestlingly, Australian punter Ben Graham all shared the Queens sound stage with Elmo. The Jets make their only Monday Night Football appearance -- and will probably get higher ratings than the Seasame Street episode -- when they face the Dolphins in Miami on Christmas Day.